Ups & Downs – Andrew Bogut & Brooklyn (46-12)

The Warriors rolled into Barclays Center on Monday night to take on the ever-mystifying Brooklyn Nets. After another slow start, the Dubs and most notably Steph Curry almost pulled a second rabbit out of the hat in as many nights before eventually falling to the Nets, 110-108.

The loss left the Warriors a disappointing, yet more than acceptable 3-3 record for their (seemingly) exhausting six game road trip.

In the true spirit of the BUZZ, I’m not going to dwell on the negatives such as Klay Thompson only posting a season-low seven points. And I’m most certainly not going to embed the Jarrett Jack go-ahead bucket with 1.1 seconds remaining that won the Nets the game. Uh uh, no sir.

What I will do however is show you a few highlights from the big fella Andrew Bogut who had somewhat of a scoring explosion today, netting 16 points on 8/10 shooting.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the big Aussie though, as a late game turnover left a dirty mark on what was otherwise a great performance.

Late in the final period, Bogut had the ball between the elbow and the three-point line. He pivoted, saw Curry curling around a screen at the opposite forty-five and fired the two-handed chest pass in his direction. Unfortunately for you, me, the Bogeyman and the Warriors in general, Curry stopped half way around the curl and Bogut’s pass went sailing into the first row.

Shit happens, move on.

My good friend Nick Metallinos from starting5online.com is based in New York and made his way into the Warriors locker room post game. He caught up with Bogut to discuss the Warriors season to date, national team representation, the turnover and much more.

If there’s one thing that’s been apparent this season with the Warriors, it’s that they really are a “panic-less” team. As previously evidenced by their veterans, this team never seems to get too high or too low on themselves. Aside from a few funny in-flight videos, Head Coach Steve Kerr and his staff have seemingly done a great job of grooming the younger players on the squad to think this way also. The Golden State Warriors culture definitely seems sound.

Cool Stat of the Night: This one goes out to all the Steph Curry “MVP” chants that were heard throughout Barclays Center during the final period.

“I kind of forgot where I was for a second, to be honest with you,” said Curry, who three times prompted the Brooklyn fans to chant “M-V-P” for him. “That three-pointer, right before the timeout, is when I looked around and thought, ‘Where am I?’ It was loud in there. You love that kind of support on the road.”

After this six-game road swing, the Warriors will return to Oracle Arena on Thursday (AU time) to host the Milwaukee Bucks. This will be no walk in the park, with the Bucks having won 10 of their past 15 games with one more to come in Denver before Thursday’s match up. Golden State will now play 10 of their next 12 games at home too, which will be very nice indeed.

Up next, the Bucks do present Bogut with a chance to throw down some more of these tasty jams against his old team though.